Tutten joined up after 9/11

Soldier killed in Iraq was to return home in 45 days

U.S. Army Sgt. Bryan Joseph Tutten, 33, who died on Christmas Day serving his country in Iraq, always wanted to be in the military.

But the deciding factor, says his mother, Sylvia Stembridge Smallwood, was 9/11.

"After 9/11, he felt he had to go," she said.

On his second tour of duty in Iraq, Tutten was serving with the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, N.C., when he was killed by a roadside bomb Christmas afternoon. He was the first St. Johns County native to lose his life in Iraq.

Deployed November 2006, he was supposed to serve in Iraq for four to six months, "then it was nine months and then 15," his mother said Friday.

His final orders were that he was scheduled to come home in 45 days.

Military service is no stranger to the sergeant's family, says his mother. Tutten's late grandfather, Dennis Stembridge, served in the U.S. Army. His stepgrandfather, Clarence McSwain of Conyers, Ga., also served in the military, and a cousin, Carl Deuschle, is retired from the U.S. Navy and the Florida National Guard.

Deuschle's mother was the late Darlene Deuschle of St. Augustine.

In addition, Tutten's father-in-law, Gary Peterson, is a retired Army National Guard lieutenant, with 33 years of service.

"Gary was a big influence on Bryant," Mrs. Smallwood said.

Born in Baptist Hospital, Jacksonville, Tutten was a St. Augustine native because "I brought him right back here the next day," says his mother. An only child, he was embraced by a large and loving family, which grew larger when he married Constandina Peterson.

His late father, Tom, was well known in St. Augustine as a folk singer and guitarist. He lost his life at age 50 in 2001 when he drowned in the ocean after coming to the aid of children who had lost an inflatable raft on Vilano Beach.

Family was always important to Bryan, says his mother. He particularly enjoyed helping his great-aunt, M.K. Murphy, who leads each year's Easter parade on horseback.

When he was in town at Easter, Bryan and his wife "walked with her the whole parade to make sure she was all right," his mother recalled.

Funeral arrangements are still pending. A service with full military honors will be held at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. Burial will be in San Lorenzo Cemetery.

His remains are to be brought to the St. Augustine Airport by Lear jet, his mother said the family has been told.

Additional survivors include two children, Catherine, who turns 4 on New Year's Eve; Gareth, born May 17 in Fort Bragg; his stepfather, Hoyt Smallwood Jr.; maternal grandmother and stepgrandfather, Jeanette and Clarence McSwain, Conyers, Ga.; an aunt, Angela Young, and cousin, Michael Lagasse; stepmother, Linda Tutten, St. Augustine; stepsister Amy Caswell and her husband, Andy; stepsisters Audrey and April Smallwood; his wife's parents, Faye and Gary Peterson; and his wife's siblings, Stefan, Scott and David Peterson, and Marisa Peterson Clark and her husband, Chris.